Received my Dillon 550B from the UPS driver on friday.

[linko]

I ordered a 550B from Dillon with their 45 acp dies and accessories.

I opened the box took oyt the press and said to myself, smart man you are.

Made in America and they surely did it right. This will last a lifetime. Setup it and made some basic settings. Ordered some bullets to go along with powder and primers I have. Looking forward to many years of use.

 

[BB57]

I've had my 550B for over 10 years now and I have yet to break anything serious. I've worn out some of the plastic primer pickups on the primer magazine tubes, and I needed to insert a new cotter pin in the primer chute this year, but otherwise it's been flawless.

With anywhere between 10K and 20K rounds loaded in the average year, I have noticed some wear on the small pistol primer feed and that may require replacement soon if it starts causing it to hang up, but it's something Dillon will just replace for free.

 

[andyo5]

I have owned a 550B since 1995 and I use it frequently. Dillon is a great company.

 

[Bob T]

If you didn't order them yet do so because Dillon dies are the best on the market.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I bought the predecessor (450) in 1984 and have done a number of up grades to make it into a 550b. I am in the 1/2 million+ round count and still going strong.

I have 2 suggestions,

1) shell plates, buttons and powder funnels are a mix and match part system. There are only 4 different buttons. So sit down and chart out what cartridges you could ever want to reload and what parts it takes to do that, when you cross off the duplicates, you will only end up with a little over half the number than if you bought the ffull kit every time. (45ACP, 30-06, 270 Win, 280 Rem, 7 & 8 Mauser, 308,7-08, 260 Rem, 358 Win and many more use the same plate and buttons, just different powder funnels. The plates for the 223 Rem family will do about 10 cartridges also, the 30-30 plate, the 44 mag plate, and the belted mag plate will each do several also. That is 4 plates for around 40 cartridges. The powder funnels overlap much the same way.)

2) Buy the 550 parts kit. Then when a part breaks on Thursday night before a 3 day weekend you won't be shut down for a big shooting event. Dillon will replace the parts, but the shipping gets bogged down.

3) Buy brass, bullets, powder and primers whenever and wherever you possibly can! Just don't tell your "friends", or they will use your stash as their store.

4) enjoy!!!

That is only 2, The others are common sense.

Ivan

 

[sunpadre]

I've had my 550b for about 11 years now. Runs great with only a single issue which Dillon quickly fixed. Earlier this year, the primer pickup bar started sticking. I sent them an email and they sent me a newer, lighter one and I was back in business. Very happy with it as you will be! Great product & support!

 

[Squarebutt]

Mine has been going strong since I bought it used in the 80s. Any problems were usually due to pilot error on my part, and fixed by the good folks in AZ at no charge. Ivan offers some good advice above. I would add to watch for used components on Craigslist and ebay, etc. The machines have been around long enough so that there are lots of used parts out there, many from guys moving up to 650 and 1050 Dillons. I still think the 550 is the most bang for the buck. Enjoy it.

 

[iouri]

Careful with that blue coolaid I've tried it about 5 years ago and now I can admit - I'm hooked

 

[BB57]

The three biggest problems with a Dillon are:

1) the little brown truck starts showing up with 1000 round boxes of bullets and brass, (usually more than one box) along with 8 pound kegs of powder.

2) You'll find you can't remember when you bought just 100 of anything,

3) You'll discover you can't load less than 500 rounds at a time, and more often than not figure you just as well load a couple thousand before you switch calibers.